42 articles - From Friday Nov 11 2022 to Friday Nov 18 2022
Guidelines and related publications, position statements, white papers, technical reviews, consensus statements, etc…
meta-analyses and systematic reviews
| Ann Rheum Dis |
Genome-wide association meta-analysis of knee and hip osteoarthritis uncovers genetic differences between patients treated with joint replacement and patients without joint replacement. Our results indicate differences in genetic associations between knee and hip osteoarthritis depending on joint replacement status. |
| Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken) |
Improvement in Cutaneous Lupus Erythematosus After 20 Findings support belimumab as an effective therapy for CLE with SLE. Likewise, they inform patient counseling regarding estimates of 20 |
RCT, clinical trials, retrospective studies, etc…
| Ann Rheum Dis |
Breakthrough infections with the SARS-CoV-2 omicron (B.1.1.529) variant in patients with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases. The cumulative incidence of reported SARS-CoV-2 omicron breakthrough infections was high, but similar between patients with IMID on immunosuppressants and controls, and disease severity was mostly mild. Additional vaccinations and prior SARS-CoV-2 infections may reduce the incidence of breakthrough infections. |
Efficacy of synthetic and biological DMARDs: a systematic literature review informing the 2022 update of the EULAR recommendations for the management of rheumatoid arthritis. The results of this SLR, together with one SLR on safety of DMARD and one on glucocorticoids, informed the taskforce of the 2022 update of the EULAR recommendations for pharmacological management of RA. |
Targeting the interleukin-5 pathway in EGPA: evidence, uncertainties and opportunities. Overall, it remains to be proven whether targeting the IL-5 pathway could block progression of organ damage in EGPA, on top of reducing relapses and sparing GC. Other disease-related factors further complicate the understanding of the real anti-IL-5 agent efficacy, such as the lack of a clear definition of remission, of an effective tool to measure disease activity, and of well-defined treat-to-target approaches or goals of treatment. |
| Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken) |
Association of change in BMI with incidence and progression of the structural defects of hip osteoarthritis: data from the OAI and CHECK studies. Weight loss may not be an effective strategy for preventing, slowing or delaying the structural defects of hip osteoarthritis over 4 to 5 |
Influence of self-reported knee instability on outcomes following education and exercise: a cohort study of 2466 patients with knee osteoarthritis. In conclusion, knee OA patients with self-reported instability seem to benefit even more from a patient education and supervised exercise therapy program than OA patients without instability. |
Reporting of and representativeness of race, ethnicity and socioeconomic status in systemic sclerosis randomized trials: an observational study. Documentation of race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status is poor in SSc-RCTs. More effort should be put into documenting race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status, and foster diversity in SSc-RCTs. |
| Arthritis Res Ther |
Accrual of organ damage in Behçet's syndrome: trajectory, associated factors, and impact on patients' quality of life over a 2-year prospective follow-up study. In BS, organ damage accrues over time, also in long-standing disease, resulting in an impairment of the perceived physical and mental health. Adequate immunosuppressive treatment, preventing disease flares and minimizing exposure to GCs have a crucial role in lowering the risk of damage accrual. |
Distinctive alterations in the functional anatomy of the cerebral cortex in pain-sensitized osteoarthritis and fibromyalgia patients. In osteoarthritis, weaker insular cortex connectivity is compatible with reduced neural activity during metabolic recovery after repeated activation. In the fibromyalgia neurophysiological context, weaker connectivity may better express both reduced neural activity and increased excitability, particularly affecting the sensorimotor cortex in patients with spontaneous body pain. Such a combination is compatible with a central gain enhancement mechanism, where low sensory tolerance results from the over-amplification of central sensory reception to compensate a presumably weak sensory input. We propose that deficient proprioception could be a factor contributing to weak sensory input. |
EC-18 prevents autoimmune arthritis by suppressing inflammatory cytokines and osteoclastogenesis. Treatment with EC-18 effectively reduced the production of inflammatory cytokines in immune cells and osteoclast differentiation in mice and patients with RA. These results suggest that EC-18 may be an effective strategy for RA. |
Periostin overexpression in scleroderma cardiac tissue and its utility as a marker for disease complications. Periostin is elevated in SSc cardiac tissue in vivo and circulating levels of periostin are increased in SSc, correlating with the extent of disease duration, degree of skin fibrosis, and left ventricular structural assessments. Periostin may be a potential biomarker that can provide further pathogenic insight into cardiac fibrosis in SSc. |
| Arthritis Rheumatol |
A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Phase III Extension Trial of the Long-Term Safety and Tolerability of Anifrolumab in Active Systemic Lupus Erythematosus. This LTE study represents the longest placebo-controlled clinical trial performed in SLE to date. No new safety findings were identified in the LTE study, supporting the favorable benefit-risk profile of anifrolumab for patients with moderate-to-severe SLE receiving standard therapy. |
Deucravacitinib, a Tyrosine Kinase 2 Inhibitor, in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: A Phase II, Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial. Deucravacitinib treatment elicited higher response rates for SRI-4 and other end points compared with placebo, with an acceptable safety profile, in adult patients with active SLE. |
The effects of daily prednisone and tocilizumab on hemoglobin A1c during the treatment of giant cell arteritis. Tocilizumab treatment was associated with a substantial reduction in HbA1c, independent of GC exposure, which may be achieved through a combination of glycemic and non-glycemic effects. |
| Rheumatology (Oxford) |
Anti-rituximab antibodies demonstrate neutralising capacity, associate with lower circulating drug levels and earlier relapse in lupus. ADA to rituximab were common and persisted over the 36-month period of this study. They associated with earlier drug elimination, an increased rate of relapse and demonstrated neutralising capacity in vitro. |
Association between anti-SSSCA1 antibodies and cancer in systemic sclerosis. These data suggest anti-SSSCA1 antibody status may be of utility as a cancer biomarker in SSc. Anti-SSSCA1-positive patients with SSc may be more likely to have severe Raynaud's and cardiac involvement. |
Improving outcomes in scleroderma: recent progress of cell-based therapies. Novel cell therapies-such as mesenchymal stem cells, chimeric antigen receptor-based therapy, tolerogenic dendritic cells, and facilitating cells-that may restore self-tolerance with more favourable safety and tolerability profiles are being explored for the treatment of dcSSc and other autoimmune diseases. This narrative review examines these evolving cell therapies. |
Methotrexate, leflunomide, and tacrolimus use and the progression of rheumatoid arthritis-associated interstitial lung disease. None of the three treatments increased the risk of RA-associated ILD progression, except for leflunomide, which increased the risk of ILD progression in patients with severe ILD. The appropriate use of conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs considering RA disease activity and ILD severity would be important for the management of RA-associated ILD. |
Microcirculation dynamics in systemic vasculitis: evidence of impaired microvascular response regardless of cardiovascular risk factors. For the first time we have showed that patients with SVs exhibit impaired microvascular function and blunted reactivity after occlusion as this was demonstrated by LSCI technique. Therefore, skin microcirculation may be a useful, non-invasive method in patients with SVs for the early detection of microvascular dysfunction which is closely related to the high CV risk that these patients bear. |
Risk factors for lung function decline in systemic sclerosis-associated interstitial lung disease in a large single-center cohort. Our study confirms that ppFVC is a marker of survival in SSc-ILD, supporting its use for risk stratification to identify patients who may benefit from earlier interventions and treatment. Our study also supports the role of ATA positivity as a predictive marker for ppFVC decline in this population. |
Systemic lupus erythematosus phenotypes formed from machine learning with a specific focus on cognitive impairment. This study demonstrates the complexity of cognitive impairment (CI) in SLE and that individual, multi-factorial phenotypes exist. Those with greater disease burden, from SLE specific factors or other factors associated with chronic conditions, report poorer cognitive functioning and perform worse on objective cognitive measures. By exploring different ways of phenotyping SLE we may better define CI in SLE. Ultimately, this will aid our understanding of personalised CI trajectories and identification of appropriate treatments. |
TGF-ß3 in differentiation and function of Tph-like cells and its relevance to disease activity in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus. The induction of Tph-like cells by TGF-ß3 mainly produced from tissue macrophages plays a pivotal role in the pathological processes of active LN by enhancing B cell differentiation in patients with SLE. |
Thrombocytopenia in antiphospholipid syndrome: a free radical perspective. Although antiphospholipid antibodies may induce platelet activation in vitro, additional stimuli may contribute to their activation in vivo, amongst which reactive oxygen and nitrogen species and lipid peroxidation products, elevated in patients with the antiphospholipid syndrome: an excess of the same stimuli may induce megakaryocyte and platelet apoptosis that leads to decreased platelet production and increased destruction, exposure resulting ultimately in thrombocytopaenia. Herein we provide a novel plausible framework involving free radicals that could add to the understanding of the thrombocytopenia/thrombosis paradox in the antiphospholipid syndrome. |
Treat-to-target urate-lowering therapy and hospitalisations for gout: results from a nationwide cohort study in England. ULT associates with an increased risk of hospitalisations within the first 6 |
Type I interferon and neutrophil transcripts in lupus nephritis renal biopsies: Clinical and histopathological associations. IFN-I transcripts are expressed locally in kidneys from patients with proliferative lupus nephritis and associated with impaired renal function. Elevated defensin-a3 transcripts, a neutrophil product associated with neutrophil extracellular traps, may identify a driver of local IFN-I expression. These findings provide insight into the mechanisms of proliferative lupus nephritis and may inform therapeutic decisions regarding selection of IFN-I pathway inhibitors. |
Plenty of the editorials are available as full text through the publisher website using the provided link
| Ann Rheum Dis |
Safety of synthetic and biological DMARDs: a systematic literature review informing the 2022 update of the EULAR recommendations for the management of rheumatoid arthritis. The safety profile of bDMARDs was further demonstrated. Whether the difference in incidence of malignancies, MACE and VTE between tofacitinib and TNFi applies to other JAKi needs further evaluation. |
misc publications eg case reports, tools of the trade, images of the month, etc…
| Ann Rheum Dis |
| Arthritis Res Ther |
| Arthritis Rheumatol |
| Rheumatology (Oxford) |
Letters to the editors and authors’ replies
| Arthritis Rheumatol |
Comment on: Effects of Anti-Tumor Necrosis Factor therapy on Osteoblastic Activity at Sites of Inflammatory and Structural Lesions in Radiographic Axial Spondyloarthritis - A Prospective Proof-of-Concept Study using Positron Emission Tomography/Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Sacroiliac Joints and Spine. |